Written by Richard Cowen | NJ.com
Imagine that every day, for more than three decades – from 1962 to 1998 – you drive a car past the Garden State Plaza shopping centre in Paramus, New Jersey. It cannot be overlooked: the gigantic 60-metre-long "Murale Alexandra", painted by Polish artist Stefan Knapp, decorated the outer wall of the Alexander’s department store like a huge, pulsating painting. It was public art in the purest, most accessible form – visible to thousands of drivers, passers-bys and customers. Many fell in love with its natural colors and abstract energy, others curving with tastelessness, but nobody – absolutely nobody – could pass by it indifferently. It became an icon of the local landscape, a sign of the times of the postwar commercial boom.
And then, suddenly, he disappeared. Like a ghost.
When Alexander’s declared bankruptcy, in 1998 the whole building was razed to the ground to make room for today’s IKEI – a Swedish furniture giant. 280 huge panels, which Knapp with the moss covered with deep blues of the sky, flaming reds, and solar bile, went to the Bergen Museum of Art and Science. Problem? The museum did not have a hall large enough to put them together and present them to the public. And so what the Guinness Book of Records once shouted at the largest public mural in the world, began collecting dust for the last 25 years in makeshift magazines: at the public works department square in Carlstadt and at Art Factory in Paterson. Worse still, about 60 panels were lost somewhere – the trail of them was lost forever.
But the story doesn't end in storage. Now, after years of forgetfulness, surviving fragments of Knapp's mural returned to Paramus – their spiritual homeland – and are exhibited in pieces in the new Valley Hospital on Winters Avenue. The object to open in April 2024 becomes not only a medical facility, but also an art gallery with history.
"We were simply delighted that we managed to bring this amazing work back to Paramus, to a place that was always his home," says Audrey Meyers, CEO and CEO of Valley Health System. "When I look at them, I am stunned by his strength. It is a real honor and a privilege to be able to do so."
"Murale Alexandra" at an exhibition at the new Valley Hospital in Paramus. Image by John J. LaRosa | For NJ Advance Media
Meyers, with a passion for art lovers, emphasizes her healing properties: art calms nerves, inspires hope and accelerates recovery. And those particular Knapp panels? They will be like a return to childhood for many patients – a familiar face with daily rides. "He has brought joy and beauty of art to so many people for so many years," adds Meyers. "I knew this mural myself like my own pocket, because I passed it hundreds of times, going to work or shopping."
Stefan Knapp's story is a ready-made scenario for a war movie with a happy artistic end. Born in Poland in 1921, he was only 18 when World War II broke out. In 1939, he was sent to a Soviet internment camp in Siberia, where he survived three cold, inhuman years. After his release, he broke into England, where he enlisted in the British Royal Air Force and taught him to fly fighters. After the war, marked by trauma of combat and exile, he discovered painting as a therapy – he started creating murals to transform nightmares into art.
In 1961, fate encountered him with George Farkas, a trade magnate and owner of Alexander’s network. Farkas commissioned Knapp to create a mural for a flagship store in Paramus. The artist, in his London hangar, used... skis to slide on giant panels and apply paint with pilot momentum. A 60-metre "violent, powerful" work was created, inspired by views from the cockpit – full of bright reds, blues and oranges. Guinness considered them the world's largest public mural, although the history of his traumatic pedigree remained in the shadows.
"Knapp carried modern art straight to the masses, to the ordinary people," emphasises Robin Goldfisher, vice president and legal director of the Valley Health System. "We wanted to pay tribute to him and his vision – art for everyone, not just the elite".
Audrey Meyers, president of the Valley Health System, pose alongside the passage "Murale Alexandra" in the lobby of the new Valley Hospital in Paramus. Image by John J. LaRosa | For NJ Advance Media
Knapp left in 1996 in London. A year later, Alexander’s collapsed and in 1998 the building in Paramus was demolished. The Farkas family donated the mural to the Bergen Art and Science Museum, then located at the Bergen Mall. The museum, despite good intentions, had no space – 90-kilogram panels were taken to warehouses. "About 60 of them have unfortunately disappeared along the way," Goldfisher sighs.
The heart of history beats faster when Meyers mentions a breakthrough phone. When the construction of the new hospital started full steam, Richard LaBarbier called, then Mayor Paramus. "What if mural Knappa found a new home here?" he suggested. Meyers immediately engaged Goldfisher. This one negotiated the acquisition of panels from the museum, and then hired a pair of conservationists – Joanna and Zbigniew Pietruszewski – for delicate cleaning and renovation. So far 49 panels have been hung at the hospital; the rest are waiting in storage for their turn.
For Meyers, this mural is more than a decoration. "It is of great importance to so many people – I hope it will work like a lotion in our 370-bed hospital when it opens in April," she prophesied. "People called me from California, Colorado, even from other states – after the video they were in the seventh sky. It's not just art. It's a piece of someone's travels, memories, family history. Knapp revived".
Photos without description were added from the FB thread, assumed by Bill Ervolino, former Alexanders employee. There is a great discussion about whether the panels were saved or whether the work of the World Map was destroyed.
https://www.facebook.com/billerv/posts/after-30-years-the-familial-stefan-knapp-mural-that-graced-the-late-paramus-alex/10227935478426117/
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